First introduced by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2017, Autofill My Return (AFR) is a great innovation.  We use it all the time.

But when we speak with other volunteers about AFR, we are struck by the large number, many of them quite experienced, who continue not to use it.  (The CVITP end-of-season survey results for 2022  corroborates this picture of low usage: only 35% of survey respondents confirmed that they made use of AFR.)

When we ask why they don’t use it, two of the most common complaints we hear are that it is too complicated and that it takes too much time to use.

This article outlines nine reasons why we think every volunteer should learn how to use AFR.   Let us know if there’s a reason we’ve missed.  We also want to hear from clinic coordinators as to why they think their organizations can offer satisfactory CVITP services without insisting that their volunteers use AFR.